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The Johnson & Johnson trial tests its Covid-19 vaccine as a single dose, rather than the two-dose regimen required by Moderna and Pfizer.
Courtesy of Johnson & Johnson
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Johnson & Johnson
The board member said the company intends to have enough doses of its Covid-19 vaccine available before April to inoculate 100 million Americans, assuming the clinical trials are successful.
Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, Dr. Mark McClellan, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who is on the board of Johnson & Johnson (marker: JNJ), said the company is working to maximize vaccine production .
“Johnson & Johnson is producing a very large supply, with all of its production both in the United States and anywhere else in the world, with the goal of having, perhaps, enough vaccines for 100 million Americans by spring. , this April or so, ”McClellan said. “Therefore, this will make a big difference in the supply available over the next few weeks and months, if the clinical trial works.”
Data from a phase 3 trial of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine are expected in the coming days. The trial tests the vaccine as a single dose, rather than the two-dose regimen required by the two Covid-19 vaccines currently authorized for emergency use by the FDA.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose 0.6% Friday morning in premarket trading. Shares have risen 2.8% this month and 9% in the last 12 months.
Last week, the CEO of Johnson & Johnson said the company intended to have hundreds of millions of vaccine doses available during the first half of the year and close to a billion by the end of the year. The New York Times later reported that the company had achieved production problems, but the company has not backed down its long-term production goals.
The vaccine is expected to be slightly less effective than the one currently available
Pfizer
(PFE) i
Modern
(MRNA) vaccines. Last week, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, then chief adviser to the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed, said he hoped Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine would prove 80 to 85 percent effective in its trial. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines demonstrated about 95% efficacy. But Slaoui said the single-dose regimen has significant benefits.
“What people need to realize is that, in real life, a very large percentage of people immunized with the first dose will not get their second dose, for a variety of reasons,” Slaoui told an investor conference. health organized by JP Morgan.
In a note to investors Thursday night, Jefferies consulting analyst Jared Holz wrote that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should show 80% or more effectiveness to be seen as a competitor to the Pfizer and Modern vaccines. .
“Injection of one against two of JNJ is a key differentiating factor and a justification for why efficacy could be lower than PFE / MRNA and still be considered a respectable treatment option,” Holz wrote.
Data on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, when treated, will have effects across the market. Holz noted that Phase 3 data releases on the Modern and Pfizer vaccines moved the file
S&P 500
about 1.5% each.
“We don’t anticipate that the market will rise so high in case JNJ notifies success, but we believe that another player entering the market would result in a new positive momentum,” he wrote.
Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis to [email protected]